Monday is mute
on the London Walks
Blog (well, almost mute) – because Monday is the day when we post
five images captured in and around London by London Walks Guides, London
Walkers and Facebook friends. Collated on a theme or an area, if you've got
some great shots of our capital and want to join in send your pictures to the usual
address.

It seems like every day we see something odd going on in the streets of London…

Friday, 27 September 2013

Great article in the New York Times today by Mark Vanhoenacker on Hampstead, featuring the Hampstead Walk with London Walks…

Read the full article HERE.A
London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your
guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all
London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.

Thursday, 26 September 2013

The posts. The columns. They could – almost
– be ship’s cannon. Four pounders. And 12 pounders.

It’s the Admiralty.

By my lights the most interesting building
in Whitehall.

The most interesting building in Whitehall
– and nobody, tourists as well as Londoners, ever sees it.

Really sees it. Properly sees it.

It gets drowned out in the gadarene rush to
Downing Street. Or the Horse Guards. Or the Banqueting House.

There’s a lot you can “do” with this
building. Gonna keep most of my powder dry. Mention just a couple of things by
way of an appetizer.

That black flag. It’s not a flag. It never
hangs limply. It’s metal. It’s a weather vane. The prevailing winds “position”
it. And what it’s connected to. The “indicator” down in the Map Room. Where the
gold braid conferred. And decided.

Which way’s the wind blowing? What
direction does the Fleet take?

Or that black “pole” coming out of the
green dome. It’sa Marconi mast.
Flashed radio signals to the Fleet. It replaced telegraph wires.

The telegraph wires replaced the
hand-worked semaphore.

And so we come to it. The semaphore on the
roof of the Admiralty.Straight
out of Nelson’s era. It would send a signal to the next station in St. George’s
Fields. St. George’s Fields would pass it on to the next hill top station. And
on and on to the cliff’s edge and ultimately to the quarter-deck.

Or the Portsmouth route. The roof of the
Admiralty to Chelsea to Putney to Kingston to Cooper’s Hill to Chately Hill to five
other hills to Compton Down to Portsdown Hill to Southsea
Beach to the tower in High Street, Portsmouth.

Portsmouth is 57 miles from London. That
hand-worked semaphore system got that message to Portsmouth in less than a
minute.

And you say, but it was in full view of
everybody. What if an enemy agent – a Continental spy – saw it?

Yeah. What if he did?

Byron died in Missolonghi in Greece on
April 19, 1824. The news of his death didn’t reach London until May 14.

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

With Summer ending and the thoughts of some already
turning to Christmas we’d like you to turn them instead to poetry. Here’s Lance
reading the poem “Christmas” by John Betjeman…

Walk leader Lance is also a professional actor who
has been performing famous poetry for decades. If you enjoyed that performance
of Betjeman’s classic then you will love the walks Lance is leading over the
next few weeks. There’s a chance to see where Betjeman grew up and went to school.
Or you can discover the rich poetic heritage of the Thames bank with poets from
Shakespeare to Wordsworth and Burns to Donne commemorated or inspired there.
And finally there’s the chance to learn more about John Milton, the only
serious rival to Shakespeare as Britain’s greatest poet. And all of their poems
are brought to life by Lance as you’ve just seen…

Sunday 29th September, 2.30pm

Poetry in Motion – Betjeman's London

Sunday 6th October, 10.45am

A Poetry in Performance Walk – Shakespeare to Wordsworth

Sunday 13th October, 2.30pm

Poetry Afoot – John Milton

A
London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your
guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all
London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.

Thanks to London Walker Jeremy Jaye who posted the following on Facebook yesterday…

Thanks Jeremy, that is really very kind of you. We will pass on your words to David, the London Walks pen, as soon as he has come round to consciousness. He usually spends the first few days after the publication of The Famous White Leaflet lying in a darkened room!

A
London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your
guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all
London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.

The Great London Reading List! Essential London books that Londoners take away on holiday to remind them of home… books visitors should read before arriving in London… fact, fiction, poetry, all genres welcome. If you’re in the mood to recommend a great London bookshop, too, we’d love to hear it! All suggestions to the usual address, please, or leave a comment below or get in touch via Twitter @londonwalks.

The Ed. replies: Thanks Tonya! Oliver Twist is a much-loved work here at The D.C – be it in novel, film or musical form. Your other recommendation, however, took us right out of our comfort zone. Deliciously so. China Mieville's conspiracy-laden romp l

eads us deep into the research wing of the
Natural History Museum where a prize specimen lies, something that comes along much
less often than once in a lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant
squid. When this rare creature suddenly and impossibly disappears from the NHM,
curator Billy Harrow is thrown into a maelstrom of warring cults, surreal magic
and assassins. Wildly imaginative stuff.

A
London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your
guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all
London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.